scholarly outputs

education

research

General interests are in fluvial geomorphology, watershed processes, fish ecology, land use politics and how all of these elements interplay in the riverine systems of the West.

Graduate research is focused on intercomparing the cost and relative accuracy of using newer and established ground-based and remote sensing technologies to describe topography and quantify instream salmonid physical habitat. This research is being conducted in the Lemhi River Basin of Idaho and employs a host of methods of varying degrees of sophistication including: total station, rtkGPS, ground-based LiDaR, single beam acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP), airborne multi-return infrared LiDaR, blimp aerial RGB imagery, UAV drone RGB imagery, fixed-wing aerial imagery. Through this study we hope to answer questions related to the feasibility of applying these technologies at the scale of large watershed habitat monitoring programs.

bio

Sara is a graduate research assistant in Dr. Joe Wheaton's ET-AL lab at Utah State University. She graduated in 2006 from University of Oregon with a BS in Environmental Science and Geography. Since completing her undergraduate degree she has worked for several Columbia River Basin instream habitat monitoring programs including NOAA's Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP) and the United States Forest Service Pacfish/Infish Biological Opinion Monitoring Program (PIBO-EMP). As well, Sara spent a year interning with the California Department of Fish and Game on the Northern California coast as an AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project (WSP) member. ​